Who Should Play Rupert Murdoch?

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The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: Rupert Murdoch gets the movie treatment, Disney resurrects an amphibian, and Charlie Sheen is, well, winning.

A British production company has acquired the rights to Good Times, Bad Times, a nonfiction book about the dark side of Esther Rolle Rupert Murdoch's relationship with Sunday Times editor Harold Evans (who wrote the book). So it's a newspapery thing about how awful Rupert Murdoch is! Meaning some actor is going to play Rupert Murdoch. A young Rupert Murdoch. Well, young-ish. The central action of the story takes place about thirty years ago, so Murdoch was what, 160? 170? It's hard to measure his age in our earth years, but it's somewhere around that. Anyway, the point is that someone will play Mr. Murdoch and it will be very interesting to see who that is. Any suggestions? We're going to go with Geoffrey Rush or this guy. [Variety]

You've heard of the movie The Wind in the Willows. And you've heard of the Disney ride based on that movie, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which the park got rid of fifteen years ago. Well now get ready for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: The Movie. Yup, Disney is putting that project together, which will be one of those hideous live action/CGI mash-up monsters that nobody likes but that do insanely well. So insanely well, in fact, that we can probably anticipate Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: The Ride sometime very soon! Or would it be The Wind in the Willows: The Ride? Just to keep with the whole palindromic thing? Who knows. The point is, Disney got rid of the ride, is now turning it into a movie, and who the hell knows maybe that means they'll turn it back into a ride. It's like a whole microcosm of the circle of life over there at Disney, huh? And I guess it would be, seeing as they invented that phrase. Happy riding, Mr. Toad. And happy talking to a CGI nothing for four months, whoever gets cast as the human lead but probably Jim Parsons. [Deadline]

This is mildly exciting: A company (Anchor Bay) has acquired distribution rights to Amy Heckerling's latest film Vamps, which reunites her with her Clueless star Alicia Silverstone. In the film, the actress formally known as Cher Horowitz and Krysten Ritter play two New York City vampires who are trying their best to not be vampires. (They go to a support group.) Then they meet boys and things get tricky. OK, so it sounds sort of extremely awful. But c'mon, guys! It's Amy, and Alicia. This thing needs our help. Supposedly Anchor Bay wants to put it out around Halloween, so, everyone buy your tickets now. As incentive, the film also stars Wallace Shawn, Justin Kirk, Richard Lewis, Kristen Johnston, Todd Barry, Marliu freakin' Henner, Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey, and Sigourney Weaver. So. Come on. Everyone go see this. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Innnteresting. The first test audiences have seen Charlie Sheen's new FX sitcom Anger Management and not only did they not sink into levels of existential despair, they actually liked it. And are like rooting for Charlie Sheen. So... that's good for everyone involved! It even scored well with women. Which means that basically we have no idea what America likes or why it likes what it likes but there you have it. Apparently Brett Butler is in this thing too? She's actually kind of a plus, but you'd think that the combination of those two substance sacks together would prove a little two depressing for a multicamera sitcom, but apparently not. Which all means that Charlie Sheen will be back soon, folks, and he might be a hit again. There you have it. [Entertainment Weekly]

AMC apparently has six scripts fighting to be the network's next pilot, and all sound vaguely interesting, but probably the most intriguing one is this: "Jake Paltrow & Robbie Kinberg‘s Crystal Pines, about a journalist who signs up for a cloning experiment." Yes the Paltrow name is a dark mark upon the project, but cloning could be cool. The least interesting project is: "Richard LaGravenese‘s Philly Lawyer, about a law student." Oh. OK. Um. Let us guess. It's about a law student and the show takes place in... Camden? I mean, that's almost Philly, right? So almost a lawyer and almost in Philly? Or maybe it takes place in Houston. Who the hell knows. What we do know is that a lawyer show is the last thing on Gozer's green earth that anyone needs right now. Unless the lawyers are clones, and then we'll talk. Anyway, chances are AMC won't pick up any of these shows and will just air a spin-off of The Killing that's the whole story told over again from a weatherman's perspective. "The day the rains came, there was a murder..." Either that or it's called Rosie's Tale and the camera just lies in a heap for thirteen hours. [Deadline]

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